In the Moon and Stars
by Marie Tomas
Summary: At the start of seventh year, James Potter is shocked and surprised to discover that Remus has apparently been in a relationship for months. He sets himself a challenge to discover who Remus's mystery 'girlfriend' might be, but he might just be a little off the mark in his search for answers...


**Notes:** A Marauder's era Wolfstar story (also featuring Jily), told from James's POV and set in the boys' seventh year. The story wasn't supposed to be anything too serious (ahem) but a few darker upcoming events are hinted at, and James also falls into patterns of hetero-normative thinking throughout the story, which leads him to miss a few obvious clues.

I was inspired to write this fan-fiction after reading a few Wolfstar headcanons, mainly one about how it would probably take ages for James to work out that Remus and Sirius were together because they'd always been so touchy-feely anyway. Would James have really been that oblivious? Who knows, but I thought it would add comedy value to this fanfic. ;)

* * *

 **In the Moon and Stars**

* * *

After almost six years of listening to one of his best friends going on and on about how he most definitely wasn't interested in going out with any of the pretty girls at Hogwarts who James always tried to set him up with, it came as something of a surprise and a shock to James Potter when, on the first visit to Hogsmeade in seventh year, he spotted Remus Lupin, huddled in a corner of Honeydukes, clutching what looked like heart-shaped sweets and chocolates-and a greeting card with a love poem and moving pictures of puppies on the front.

James might have thought nothing of it, at first; he might have just assumed that Remus was buying all of these strange, romantic-looking items to use as part of some elaborate practical joke, if not for the fact that Remus gasped loudly and jumped the second James swaggered over to him (almost as though he'd been trying to avoid being spotted by any of his friends), blushing bright red as he dropped all of his items on the floor in his shock, which instantly let James know that this was no game or practical joke, and instead that something very serious was going on with Remus.

"Er…Moony?" James asked his fellow Marauder with a raised eyebrow, as he attempted to help a flustered-looking Remus gather up his items from the floor. "Why are buying all this stuff?" He could barely hide the look of disapproval from his face. Lily and her friends might have loved girly, romantic stuff like this, but James still struggled sometimes to see the point of it all.

"Er, well," Remus stuttered, as soon as the heart-shaped chocolates were safely back in his arms. "You see, James, now that I'm in a relationship, I thought it might be nice to-"

"Wait! What?!" James quickly cut him off, his eyes widening in shock. He blinked rapidly a few times as he gawped at Remus, who still looked very embarrassed. " _You're_ in a relationship?"

James could hardly believe it. Moony hadn't really shown any interest in finding a girlfriend before, and he'd always insisted that he could _never_ risk falling in love with someone who might not be able to understand or accept his 'furry little problem'. James couldn't help wondering when all of that had changed…

"Well, yes," Remus shrugged, his face still bright red. He seemed to be taking deep breaths, as though trying to calm himself down.

James tried to give him a reassuring sort of grin. _He_ hardly ever got nervous about anything, so sometimes he almost forgot about how easily Remus could stress himself out over even the slightest thing.

"I…er…I sort of assumed you'd worked it out," Remus continued breathlessly, "when we were all on the platform at King's Cross, at the end of sixth year…" he suddenly trailed off, his expression now looking even more uncertain than before.

James frowned at him in confusion. King's Cross, at the end of sixth year? He tried to cast his mind back to that day…

There _had_ been a few Gryffindor girls around Remus at the time, when they'd first got off the train. Witches always seemed to like being around Remus, and a lot of the female Gryffindor students often described him as 'a very sweet boy' (obviously, they hadn't spent any time around Remus in the run up to or the come down from his full-moon transformations, and they mustn't know just how devious Remus could be when it came to planning the Marauder's more elaborate pranks).

James distinctly remembered Lily giving Remus a kiss on the cheek to say goodbye before she told him she hoped he had a good summer, and Marlene (who had already changed into a leather jacket and ripped jeans on the train, if James remembered rightly) ruffled Remus's hair a few times and gave him a few playful shoves as they hung around on the platform, waiting for the guard to allow them to pass back through the barrier. Even Alice had given Remus an affectionate hug before she ran off to greet her family.

However, all of those affectionate gestures with the girls had been abruptly cut off when Sirius pushed past his fellow Gryffindors, hurriedly wrapping Remus up in an embrace, as though the two of them didn't hug all the time at school anyway.

"Moony!" James could remember Sirius sighing loudly into Remus's shoulder, almost sounding like he was upset about something, or like he had something urgent to say, "I'm going to miss you _so much_!"

"You'll be seeing him again in two weeks, you prat!" James had spluttered indignantly in response, feeling a bit annoyed that Sirius was getting himself so upset over something that _he_ didn't think was exactly a major issue, not when Sirius _should_ have been focusing instead on the fact that he was going to have the best summer ever with James and his parents, away from his vile, prejudiced family…not to mention the fact that Remus and Peter would be coming to stay at James's house a couple of weeks into the holidays, so it wasn't like Sirius would have very much time to miss either of them.

After that, James's memory of the rest of their time on platform nine-and-three-quarters was a bit hazy, because he'd been a bit distracted making accusing comments to Sirius about his apparent lack of enthusiasm for the upcoming summer holidays…

"But…with _who_?" James finally asked, brought back to the present by Remus's nervous-but-expectant stare, and giving up on trying to work out who Remus's girlfriend might be based solely on that one memory of King's Cross back in summer.

"Isn't it obvious?" Remus asked him with a frown, like James should know this already.

As James frowned back at him, Remus opened his mouth as though to say something else, or to offer some kind of explanation, but James quickly cut him off…

"No, wait, don't tell me!" he insisted as he held up his hands to emphasise his point. He'd just been hit by a sudden idea. "I'll work it out!" he told Remus smugly as he placed his hands on his hips, trying to show how confident he felt about this. After all, there was no mystery at Hogwarts that James Potter couldn't solve.

Remus, however, looked rather doubtful. "Er, James, I'm really not so sure you will-"

"Oh, come on, Moony! Have a bit of faith in my problem-solving skills!" James interrupted him again with a glare. "Just give me a couple of weeks…in fact, I bet you five Galleons I'll have worked out who it is by the next full moon-"

Instantly, Remus shuddered at the mention of the full moon, and he gave James an exasperated-looking glare.

"Oh, all right, I'll have it all worked out by the first Gryffindor Quidditch match, then," James sighed.

Remus looked like he wanted to argue or protest this matter a bit further, but James was suddenly distracted by the sight of Sirius and Peter out of the shop window, both of whom appeared to be carrying several bags of items from Zonko's.

Before Remus could say anything else, James ran outside to see what they were both up to (and to find out whether they'd purchased anything interesting), leaving Remus alone with his hearts and his puppy dog pictures.

As he caught up with Peter and Sirius, listening to Sirius playfully insult him as he got closer, James silently vowed to work out the identity of Remus's mystery girlfriend later.

* * *

Later that evening, James finally gave up on pacing the seventh-year boys' dormitory and thinking up elaborate ways of finding clues as to the identity of Remus's new girlfriend, and he instead decided to consult the Marauder's Map, hoping to find a quick and easy solution to the problem after already wasting a few hours deep in thought.

He sat down on his bed and stared at the map intently. However, the map clearly didn't hold any answers tonight, as the only person who James could see Remus with was Sirius, the two tiny dots and labels on the map showing that they were both in the library.

Briefly, James wondered why Sirius would want to hang around somewhere as boring as the library, but then he simply shrugged, deciding that Remus and Sirius were probably trying to sneak into the Restricted Section, or maybe they were searching for books to assist them with some kind of prank that might involve complicated spells.

With another shrug and a sigh, James placed his glasses and the map beside his bed, hoping that Remus and Sirius had at least had a more productive evening than he had had.

* * *

On Monday morning, James observed Remus closely from across the desks throughout their first class of the day.

Instead of focusing on taking detailed notes, Remus appeared to be writing a long, personal note to someone, a frown of concentration on his face the whole time as his quill moved swiftly across a spare bit of parchment.

James leaned forward eagerly in his seat. He was convinced that the recipient of this detailed note would most likely be Remus's mysterious girlfriend.

As Remus carefully folded up the piece of parchment into four equal squares, James surveyed the girls in the classroom (only pausing now and again to alternate between gazing admiringly at Lily's long, red hair, which seemed to be shining in the light from the classroom window, and working on a sketch of his own; he'd spent the best part of the lesson drawing a Snitch and writing his and Lily's initials inside it).

He wondered which one of the girls, if any, seemed to be waiting to receive some sort of note. Marlene winked at Remus, briefly, but then she also smirked at Sirius, so James didn't read too much into that wink.

Anyway, James must have been wrong in his assumptions this time, because instead of levitating the note over to one of the girls in the classroom, Remus sent the note in Sirius's direction, who opened the note, read it quickly and then looked up and smirked at Remus, who smirked back.

With a sigh, James decided that Remus hadn't in fact been writing a love note after all, and had probably just written down a plan for yet another prank.

This belief was confirmed when Sirius sent a note over towards James's desk (playfully aiming it at James's head this time instead of delicately levitating it over, the way he always did when he was passing notes to Remus), complete with insulting sketches of a few of their teachers and a suggestion about possibly carrying out some elaborate prank just before the Christmas holidays that seemed to involve putting some kind of swamp in one of the corridors.

However, James was quickly distracted from his thoughts about notes all over again when Lily turned around a little in her seat and caught sight of the picture that James had been drawing for the past hour. Predictably, she rolled her eyes at him while James shrugged and smirked at her, trying to act casual, but this time, she actually smiled a bit too as she turned back around, which James decided to take as a positive sign.

* * *

Not to be deterred, James observed Remus in class for the next couple of days.

Unfortunately, apart from taking long, detailed notes in every single class (notes that James, Sirius and Peter would no doubt have to borrow at some point in the run up to the exams), and obsessing over getting every single spell and incantation just right, the only thing of notable interest that Remus did was to absently doodle the occasional picture of moons and stars on a few of his long rolls of parchment.

* * *

"Aha!" James called out triumphantly as he took the last few steps leading up to the Astronomy Tower two at a time and jumped into view.

After a few more days of observing Remus's movements on the Marauder's Map, noting that Remus seemed to be spending a lot of time at the top of the Astronomy Tower lately, James had jumped to the conclusion that Remus was using the tower as a place to secretly meet his girlfriend.

Yet, as he took in the scene around him, James realised that he'd been wrong again in this conclusion, because Remus was not in fact taking part in some secret snogging session at the top of the tower but was instead up here with Sirius, of all people, the two of them whispering to each other and staring up at the sky as though the moon and stars had suddenly become very interesting.

The two of them jumped the moment James shouted out, darting around as though they had something to hide, but then they both rolled their eyes in exasperation when James emerged from the shadows with his arms folded, trying to look like he had a genuine reason to be there.

Strangely enough, this was not the first time that Remus and Sirius had shown up together in some bizarre place at Hogwarts recently-according to the map, anyway; first there had been the time in the library, then there'd been a few more times at the top of the Astronomy Tower, and the times in various secret passageways, once or twice in the kitchens, and a couple of times in the Potions supply cupboard. James had even been sure that he'd spotted both of their names on the map in a couple of old broomstick cupboards, although he wasn't sure why they would have been there, unless they'd been hiding from the teachers or something.

As he took in the nervous expressions on their faces, James suddenly thought of something: " _I_ know what you're both up to…" he announced smugly after a couple of seconds of awkward silence. He wasn't sure if he imagined it, but it seemed like Sirius and Remus shared an almost wary glance at his words. "The two of you are up here planning some sort of secret practical joke without me, aren't you?"

It all seemed so obvious now; Sirius's visit to Zonko's on the last Hogsmeade visit, the constant secret meetings all over school, the visit to the Potions cupboard (probably to steal supplies), the passing of notes and the smug smirks… _of course_ the two of them had some sort of secret plan up their sleeves.

Remus and Sirius seemed to share another strange glance for a moment or two, but finally, Sirius sighed and said, "Yes, Prongs, that's exactly what we're up to."

"I bet it involves Snivellus," James continued eagerly, not feeling the least bit bothered that they'd left him out this time, and instead finally feeling happy that he'd solved one mystery, at least. "That's why you didn't tell me about it, isn't it?"

It would make sense, after all, because they both knew that James was trying this new thing where he didn't attempt to hex or jinx Severus Snape at every given opportunity.

Lily had insisted that this was part of the terms of her beginning any possible friendship (or relationship) with him, and so James had gone along with it since the start of seventh year, eager to impress Lily and convince her that he was 'boyfriend material'.

Of course, if Padfoot and Moony were to 'secretly' come up with a practical joke involving Snape, and James officially knew nothing of their plans, then that was a whole other story…

"Perhaps it does, Prongs, perhaps it does!" Sirius replied cryptically with a vague smirk.

"Well, Padfoot, plan away, then!" James responded with a smirk of his own, while Remus rolled his eyes at the two of them.

Whatever it was, James was all for the continuation of their typical practical jokes, especially this year, with the constant whisperings of war, and gloomy predictions of dark times ahead; it really felt like the wizarding world needed a bit more laughter.

He was convinced that it would be nice for all of them to have a bit more _love_ in their lives, too, so James was glad that Remus at least seemed to have found it, even though he still had no idea _who_ Remus had found love with.

* * *

Sadly, all thoughts of pranks, plans and Hogwarts romances had to be put on hold for a bit in the immediate aftermath of the full moon, as Moony ended up having to stay in the hospital wing for a couple of days after a particularly bad transformation.

Not wanting to leave his friend's side (and happy to have the excuse to miss class for a couple of hours), James stood close to Remus's hospital bed as he slept, his arms folded, feeling a little tense, but trying to stay strong for the sake of the rest of the group.

Sirius sat on a wooden chair, positioning himself even closer to Remus's bed than James. He too looked pale and drawn due to worry and lack of sleep, and he seemed to be blinking back tears.

Peter was also waiting with James and Sirius in the hospital wing, although he had positioned himself further away from the hospital bed than the rest of the group for some reason; he was sitting in another chair in the far corner of the room.

As usual, Madam Pomfrey was making a fuss, constantly muttering things about Remus needing more sleep and more soothing potions as she paced up and down the hospital wing.

Yet it was the presence of both Professor Dumbledore and Professor McGonagall in the hospital wing today that really served to increase James's worries; he really hoped that they were here on some other business and weren't in fact here because they had a reason to be overly concerned for Remus's health or wellbeing. After all, mysterious injuries and disappearances seemed to be commonplace at Hogwarts this year, and it seemed like tension between the Slytherins and the other houses was at an all-time high.

As concerned as he was for Remus, James couldn't help glancing at the door leading out of the hospital wing every couple of minutes, just to see if Remus's mystery girlfriend suddenly decided to run dramatically into the room with tears spilling from her eyes, perhaps after noticing that Remus wasn't in class today, or after hearing rumours from other students that Remus had 'mysteriously' fallen ill again.

He also listened carefully to all of Remus's usual mumblings and grumblings as he talked in his sleep, to see if he could pick up on any hint of a name of a girl that might just leave Remus's lips…

It seemed however, that all thoughts of girlfriends were far from Remus's mind (and dreams) right now, because instead of calling out the name of a pretty female student, Remus simply muttered, "Sirius…James…Peter…" in his sleep, unconsciously calling out to the three of them during one of his most troubled moments, the way he had always done since they all became friends in first year.

As emotional as the moment was, James wasn't sure that it was completely necessary for Sirius to practically throw himself on top of Remus the moment Remus muttered his name, holding Remus's hand in his as he called out, "I'm here, Moony! I'm here!"

James might have sternly whispered, "Calm down, you idiot!" at Sirius, and Peter might have squeaked a little in fright the second Sirius started shouting, but none of this did anything to deter Sirius's loud reassurances to Remus that he 'wasn't going anywhere', or anything to loosen his grip on Remus's hand.

From the other side of the room, Madam Pomfrey pursed her lips in obvious disapproval, and James heard Professor McGonagall mumble something like, "Black has always had a flair for the melodramatic," under her breath.

Usually, James would defend his friends from the teachers' rather insulting comments, but this time, he could kind of see how Professor McGonagall might just have a point.

He wasn't sure however why Dumbledore appeared to be smiling to himself as he discreetly left the room.

* * *

"James, mate," James heard Sirius sigh from where he was lying on his bed. Sirius had positioned himself so that his head was in Remus's lap, while Remus leaned against the pillows and gently stroked Sirius's hair, looking like there was nothing else he'd rather be doing on a Saturday afternoon. "You're my best friend in the whole wizarding world, and I love you like a brother, but there's _no way_ I believe what you're saying about going on a date with Lily Evans!"

"Look, I don't care what you prats think!" James grinned as he stopped running around the dormitory for a moment to lean on Sirius's bedpost. "I really _am_ going on a date with _Lily Evans_ this afternoon! She really did agree to go with me!"

James took a few deep breaths after he finished speaking, feeling the adrenalin run through his body.

After years of listening to Lily insist that she would never, _ever_ go out with him, James sort of understood why his friends might be having trouble believing that he was about to go on a real date with the girl he'd been in love with for years (honestly, James was still having trouble believing it himself), but that didn't make it any less true; his attempts to be more mature and more understanding and 'less of an arrogant prat', as Lily had put it, had finally paid off, and she'd really agreed to 'give him a chance' and go out on a first date with him that would consist of a romantic stroll around the Hogwarts grounds, where Lily would call him handsome, and confess her undying love for him, and they would plan their wedding, and come up with possible names for their first child…

Okay, maybe James was getting a little carried away with a few of those plans, but whatever happened, the two of them were about to go on a date. Together.

"She's meeting me in the grounds in fifteen minutes!" James continued to insist, feeling breathless with excitement.

James had taken inspiration from Remus when planning the date, after he'd caught him sneaking around the Hogwarts grounds a couple of evenings ago and picking flowers, of all things. Assuming that the flowers were for his girlfriend, James had tried to ask questions about the intended recipient, but Remus had insisted that he'd simply wanted the flowers to decorate their dormitory.

Anyway, Sirius seemed to have 'adopted' the flowers since then, because they'd gradually moved over towards his side of the dormitory. James had even caught Sirius talking to the flowers a couple of times, like they were now his own 'children' or something.

"And Evans is fully aware that this is a date?" Sirius asked him with a raised eyebrow, while Remus continued to tenderly stroke his hair. Sirius smirked up at Remus when he finished speaking, and Remus smiled back at him.

James had a funny feeling that they weren't in fact grinning about Sirius's comment and were instead sharing some sort of private joke of their own.

"Of course she is, you prat!" James shouted back at Sirius as he aimed a pillow at his head and missed.

He'd done it more to get Sirius's attention than anything else, but Sirius seemed rather…distracted.

Amongst his excitement about his date with Lily, James suddenly couldn't help but wonder if maybe Remus should be lovingly stroking his girlfriend's hair, instead, or at least spending a bit of quality time with her now that they all had a free afternoon.

James was still no closer to guessing who Remus's girlfriend might be. Remus had displayed a hand-made 'Get Well Soon!' card from Lily and Alice beside his bed, but as Lily was about to go on a date with James, and James was also fairly certain that Alice had a boyfriend now, he wasn't sure there were any hidden messages to be found inside the card.

"I've got to see this!" Sirius declared a few minutes later when James started to head out of the dormitory door, eager to arrive on time for his date.

"Be my guest," James shrugged, happy for any audience he could get. He _definitely_ wanted the rumours of his romance with Lily to start spreading around Hogwarts as soon as possible, and he knew that his best mate would be the best person to spread gossip.

Sirius leapt up from his position on the bed, and Remus actually looked reluctant to see him go.

"Er…Pads," James muttered as the two of them headed down the stairs, trying to sound tactful and sensitive, "maybe you should let other people who _aren't_ Remus have their turn to play with your hair?"

James was fairly impressed with his wording. He hadn't outright told Sirius that he believed Remus should be focusing more on his relationship, and he also hadn't told Sirius that he should stop with the whole hair thing, but at the same time, he'd left just enough of a hint that Remus might have somewhere else he needed to be this afternoon.

Surprisingly, Sirius started laughing. "Ah, don't get jealous, Prongsy!" Sirius told him between gasps of laughter. "You know you can play with my hair whenever you want!"

"What? No! You've completely missed the point!" James spluttered, indignantly, but Sirius wasn't having any of it.

He continued to laugh at James all the way down to the Entrance Hall and out into the grounds, and James only managed to get him to go away when Lily snapped at both at them and told James that it was very distracting, having Sirius follow them around the grounds on their date.

* * *

After they had walked around the Hogwarts grounds for several hours, deep in conversation, and even occasionally sharing their usual insults and banter, James walked back through the portrait hole hand-in-hand with Lily, and what he knew was a very smug smirk on his face.

The date had gone much better than he'd expected, and he couldn't wait to tell his friends about it.

As he took a few steps further into the common room, James half-expected his fellow Marauders to be standing waiting for him, ready to offer their congratulations, or maybe even to give him a loud round of applause…but unfortunately, the common room seemed to be rather quiet.

James's eyes scanned the room, trying to see if his friends were in there, and after a few seconds, he spotted two of them-Sirius and Remus were cuddled up together on the sofa closest to the fireplace, the two of them fast asleep as Sirius held Remus in his arms and Remus practically nuzzled into Sirius's neck.

This seemed to be the most peaceful sleep that Remus had had since the last full moon. In fact, _both_ of them looked very peaceful, very intimate, with Remus wearing one of the jumpers that had been an old gift from Sirius's family (Sirius had tried to get rid of it when he'd first run away from home, but Remus seemed to have taken a liking to it, for some reason, and wouldn't let him throw it away) and Sirius in turn was wearing one of Remus's faded Gryffindor jumpers.

Out of habit, James glanced at the floor to see if Peter was also sleeping at their feet, the way he had done since first year, but Peter wasn't there. It seemed like he had been mysteriously disappearing a lot lately, but James really had no idea where he was going off to, or if anything was bothering him.

Remus had even insisted that he'd seen Peter hanging around the library with a group of Slytherin students the other day, but James had insisted even more firmly that this couldn't be possible; Wormtail would _never_ want to spend time with the stuck up, prejudiced Slytherins.

Instead, he had told Remus (with his new-found wisdom that he seemed to have gained since the start of seventh year) that he must be so tired after the last full moon, that maybe he was just imagining things, and maybe Peter was simply worried about all the talk of war that was going around school, or even the upcoming exams, and maybe he needed some time alone with his thoughts.

As Remus and Sirius continued to sleep, still wrapped up in each other's arms, completely oblivious to his presence, James frowned in confusion. Although he didn't make a habit of telling a lot of people about it, he and Sirius had ended up cuddled up together in James's bed a few times over the years, usually when they'd been talking late into the night and had simply fallen asleep as a result, but James wasn't sure if he and Sirius had ever looked so…close when they cuddled.

With another frown, James asked, "Maybe we should wake them up?" as a thought suddenly occurred to him.

"Why, James?" Lily asked him with a frown of her own.

"Because, _I_ think Remus's girlfriend might get a bit jealous, if she walks in here and sees him cuddling with-"

"You're an idiot," Lily told him before he could even finish his sentence, her arms folded as she rolled her eyes at him.

With that, Lily went to join her giggling group of friends in the corner of the common room, who were no doubt waiting to hear every detail of her date, while James was left alone with the thought that he still had no idea as to who Remus's girlfriend was, and also a niggling feeling that there was something going on that people weren't telling him about…or that there was a very important clue he was missing.

* * *

"Psst! Moony!" James called out into the dark dormitory, in what had to be his sixth attempt to wake Remus up.

It was the night before Gryffindor's first Quidditch match of the season, and there was a lot of pressure on the whole team to win, so that they would stand a better chance of eventually winning the Quidditch cup at the end of next term, and there was even more pressure on them to end the game as soon as possible, before the Slytherin team had the chance to resort to any dirty tricks, and yet James couldn't bring himself to worry about the fast-approaching match just yet.

He was a bit more concerned about the fact that, after bragging so confidently that he would have worked out the identity of Remus's girlfriend by the first Quidditch match, he was still no closer to doing just that, even though the match was only hours away.

It wasn't that he was upset at the prospect of having to pay five Galleons to Remus for losing their bet (money was no object to the Potters), but it was more the principle of it-James had never had to concede defeat before-he'd always solved every mystery, found every clue, discovered every secret, won every challenge…it was what he was good at; it was the only way of life at Hogwarts he knew. It was therefore really bothering him that he might just lose this time.

Finally, after James called out Remus's name one more time, Remus stirred in his sleep before he fully woke up.

"Honestly, James," Remus sighed after a couple of tense seconds in which he glared angrily at James from across the dormitory, "if you've woken me up again just to share yet another _pathetic_ 'Maraudeer' joke…"

"Moony," James rushed on, deciding to ignore that last comment, "who do you reckon is the most attractive student at Hogwarts?"

James smirked smugly to himself at the obvious genius behind his question. He hadn't had to resort to asking Remus outright who he was going out with, or who he fancied, but this was close enough.

James knew that Remus was already used to these strange questions from him in the middle of the night (usually mixed in with a couple of jokes, for extra entertainment), so he would probably answer him, and he would _have_ to answer this question with his girlfriend's name, or it would seem like he was being disloyal or something.

James really thought that it was a fool proof strategy, until…

"Sirius Black," Remus answered, after barely a second's hesitation.

At these words, James's smug smile froze on his face. He glared at Remus from across the room, and Remus actually seemed to be trying to cover up a grin, almost like he knew just how irritating he was being by giving an answer like that.

Every single student in Gryffindor house _always_ answered questions like that with Sirius's name. It had kind of become a running joke between them all, as Sirius was widely considered to be one of the best-looking students at Hogwarts.

As funny as the joke was, it had led to a few awkward moments between several female students and their jealous boyfriends, and things became especially awkward when students were sometimes dared to kiss 'the most attractive person in the common room' whenever the Gryffindors played Truth-or-Dare-like games. James just wished that _Remus_ hadn't resorted to giving the standard Gryffindor student answer at this very moment.

"No, I mean apart from Sirius Black!" James sighed in exasperation. "Just take Sirius's handsomeness as a given, all right? The way that all the other students do! What I _really_ want to know is-"

"Look, James," Remus interrupted him, "if you're concerned that Lily finds Sirius more attractive than you or something, then you really needn't worry; she's already told me-several times, I might add-that she thinks you're the most handsome boy at school!"

At those words, James felt a triumphant grin spread slowly across his face. "She does, does she?" he asked Remus with another grin, knowing that he was barely containing the smug tone in his voice.

"Yes, she does," Remus confirmed. "Now, go to sleep, you have a very important match tomorrow. Goodnight, James."

It actually took a few more minutes of staring up at the dark ceiling before James realised that he'd allowed himself to get so distracted by Remus's words about Lily that he'd missed out on another opportunity to ask Remus about who _he_ was going out with.

And now Remus had fallen asleep again. Although, James couldn't quite shake off a sneaking suspicion that Remus's snores sounded a little bit fake…

* * *

James's dismounted his broom triumphantly at the end of the Quidditch match, feeling the exhilaration that only a victory on the Quidditch pitch could bring.

He closed his eyes for a few moments and threw his hands up in the air, taking in the cheers and the almost-deafening chants of, 'Potter! Potter!'

James knew that he hadn't been solely responsible for the team's victory, but still, right now, it felt like it.

As he opened his eyes, he searched the pitch for his friends, hoping to share the moment of triumph with them…maybe they would even lift him onto their shoulders in celebration…

Peter was nowhere to be found, but James caught sight of Remus, who was also grinning…although he seemed to be a bit distracted, almost like he was searching for someone else in the crowd.

And then James himself suddenly got distracted, because Lily was running towards him with that determined look on her face that he had always loved so much, and then she was kissing him, and James was completely caught up in kissing her back, wrapping his arms around her waist, then running a hand through her hair, and genuinely starting to wonder if kissing Lily was actually better than any Quidditch victory could ever be.

Perhaps a celebratory kiss with Lily would also make up for the fact that he now owed Remus five Galleons…

With that thought in mind, James reluctantly broke apart from the kiss and opened his eyes a little, just to catch a glimpse of what else was going on amongst the ever-expanding crowd of Gryffindors on the pitch.

At last he saw Sirius, who was running up to Remus with a huge smile on his face. As soon as they were standing only inches apart, Sirius pulled Remus close to his body and _kissed him on the lips_ , and they were snogging passionately, right in the middle of the Quidditch pitch, with Sirius practically lifting Remus off his feet and….

Oh… _oh_ …

In a flash, everything jolted into place for James.

Of course. Of course! How had he not _known_? How had he not worked it out? How had he not even thought about it…?

This whole time, James had assumed that Remus had a girlfriend, allowing himself to fall into the typical style of thinking at Hogwarts that if a wizard was going out with someone, then that 'someone' had to be a witch. Perhaps it was time he changed that way of thinking, in light of what had apparently been going on right under his nose for months.

Had Remus ever even used the word 'girlfriend' in conversation? Probably not. James had just assumed. And Remus and Sirius had always been so touchy-feely anyway since first year that James just hadn't realised that anything had changed in their relationship.

James thought about Remus's lack of interest in going out with the girls at Hogwarts. There never _had_ been a girlfriend, not for Remus, anyway, not when he was clearly madly in love with his _boyfriend_.

Oh, Merlin, how had he not worked all this out before now?

Then, he thought about Sirius, who only ever seemed to flirt with girls when there was some overall benefit in it for him, like discounts at the shops in Hogsmeade or free Butterbeers. And there were all those times when he'd paced up and down the dormitory, ranting to James about how prejudiced, how _homophobic_ his mother was. James was so used to the Black family being prejudiced against anyone who wasn't the 'purest' of pure-bloods that he had never even considered that Sirius might have been trying to tell him that their homophobia affected Sirius personally.

Would Remus be annoyed at him for all his assumptions, or for not picking up on his subtle hints and working all this out? Would _Sirius_ be offended by his behaviour?

As though sensing James's tension, Remus and Sirius both seemed to have paused in their kissing at some point, and they were now staring at James with very worried expressions on their faces, like they were afraid of his disapproval.

Even Lily was looking between them all with a nervous expression on her face.

Trying to shake off his sense of shock, James shrugged and tried his best to give them his 'well-if-you-must expression', before he smirked and winked at the two of them.

None of them were very good at emotional, heartfelt talks or apologies, but James hoped that this gesture would be enough for now.

Finally, Remus and Sirius smiled at him, before they returned to their kissing. James could just make out Sirius whispering, "Love ya, Moony," between kisses, and Remus's response of, "Love you, too, Padfoot."

"You're an idiot," Lily told James the second he turned back around to face her. Given all the obvious clues that he'd missed over the past few weeks, he would have to agree with her.

"But I'm _your_ idiot," he told Lily with a grin as he waggled his eyebrows at her.

"That you are," Lily told him with a soft smile, before she leaned in to kiss him again.

At Lily's words, and her kiss, James felt warmth run through his body, almost as though Butterbeer were running through his blood. He wondered if she knew how long he'd waited to hear her say stuff like that.

When they broke apart from their kiss, James found himself with a few moments to think things through.

When he thought about it, this had all worked out for the best; he and Lily were together, and now, Remus and Sirius were together.

One of his best mates, and the boy who James had come to consider as a brother, _together_ …

For years, James had secretly worried that the Marauders would go their separate ways after Hogwarts, that Remus and Sirius would meet other people and the four friends would drift apart. But now, like this…

He and Lily had each other, and the Marauders all adored Lily, and she adored them. And now Remus and Sirius had each other, too, and maybe they could all go on double dates together, or live next door to each other, or something...and Peter, well, Peter would always be close to them all, as well.

Although he couldn't explain the logic of it, James just _knew_ that Remus and Sirius being together would only make all of their friendships stronger.

It was perfect, it was fate, it was destiny...it was written in the moon and stars.

James felt a smug smirk creep to his face as he thought about how things had turned out. He knew he was probably grinning like an idiot, but he didn't care.

"Go and celebrate with your friends," Lily told him with a smile, like she could tell from his smirk what he was thinking.

After another quick kiss with Lily, James ran across the pitch to join Remus and Sirius.

"Why didn't you tell me, you prats?!" he shouted as he jumped up and practically crashed into them in his enthusiasm to get his arms around them.

Remus might have grumbled at him and mumbled a few things about how he'd assumed that James already knew, and Sirius might have sworn loudly and called James an idiot, but then they were all hugging, and laughing.

As the three of them jumped up and down with their arms around one another, James suddenly decided that it didn't matter that he'd been an idiot; it also didn't matter that he'd lost his bet with Remus due to his cluelessness, because this moment, right now, with Remus and Sirius, truly felt like a victory.


End file.
